Failed economic update provoked coalition approach

To the Editor:

I suppose David Morse would have readers attribute fairness and balance to his warnings about a coalition (“Word to the wise: avoid coalition”, Kings County Advertiser, Dec. 16, 2008).

Unfortunately, his letter is full of partisan misrepresentations of our present political crisis. While David Morse would have us believe all of the opposition parties are acting with the worst of motives (for the NDP and Liberals, it's the lust for power, and for the Bloc, it’s avowed goal of a sovereign Quebec), he suggests the Harper Conservatives alone have the true interests of the nation at heart.

In a similar vein, Morse alleges that the catalyst for the coalition was the conjuncture of ongoing NDP coalition-plotting and the Harper government's proposal to cut political subsidies for the financially strapped opposition federal parties. Yet surely the real justification for the coalition was the failure of the Harper government to include in the economic update any credible response to the looming recession -- this at a time when the rest of the world's governments had been struggling for months to stabilize financial markets and avoid economic disaster.

Contrary to what David Morse would have us believe, the real scandal in the present crisis is not the machinations of the opposition parties, but rather the failure of the Prime Minister to put the good of the country before partisan politics.

Many Canadians, regardless of their political persuasion, have been deeply disappointed by the two-fold failure of Prime Minister Harper to put the national interest before partisan politics and to demonstrate a capacity to bring Canadians together rather than divide them.

Yours sincerely

Scott Burbidge

Port Williams, N.S